Consistency and Accuracy from Prefit Rifle Barrels

19th Jul 2018by Justin Brown, PhD

One of the most important parts of a rifle for accuracy is the barrel. Over the past year we have started testing prefit barrels from Shilen, Criterion and Lothar Walther. The benefit of a prefit barrel is they can be easily installed without a lathe or gunsmith using simple hand tools such as a torque wrench and headspace gauges. Prefit barrels also make changing rifle calibers a quick and relatively easy process. We have found prefit barrels from all three companies to produce excellent accuracy and consistent velocities. After a break in period we have found that barrels from all three manufacturers provide virtually identical results. We have not noticed any loss in accuracy or consistency from using prefit barrels. For anyone looking to rebarrel an old rifle, switch calibers within the same bolt face diameter or build a new rifle we highly recommend checking out prefit barrels.